THE HONOURABLE SRI JUSTICE N.TUKARAMJI CRIMINAL PETITION NOs.7720 AND 7882 of 2024

COMMON ORDER

These criminal petitions are filed under Section 482 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (for brevity, "CrPC"), seeking quashment of the proceedings in Crime No. 722 of 2024 registered at Meerpet Police Station, under the jurisdiction of the Rachakonda Commissionerate.

2. I have heard Mr. Jogram Tejavath, learned counsel for the petitioners and Mr.Jithender Rao Veeramalla, learned Additional Public Prosecutor appearing for the respondent No.1-State and Mr. Nimma Narayana, learned counsel for the respondent No.2.

3. Criminal Petition No. 7720 of 2024 has been filed by Accused No. 1, while Criminal Petition No. 7882 of 2024 has been filed by Accused No. 2. As both petitions arise out of the same criminal proceedings and involve common questions of fact and law, they are heard together and are being disposed of by this common order.

4. The respondent No.2 is the de facto complainant, in the underlying criminal case. For the sake of convenience and clarity, the petitioners are hereinafter referred to as ‘the Accused No.1’ and ‘the Accused No. 2’.

5(a). The respondent No.2 (hereinafter "the complainant") filed a private complaint asserting that she is the legally wedded wife of Accused No.1, having been married to him in accordance with Hindu rites and customs. At the time of marriage, she was only 13 years old and dispute that tender age, she joined the matrimonial home. From the outset, Accused No.1 exhibited a domineering, obstinate, and abusive nature. His parents treated her as a domestic servant.

5(b). Subsequently, Accused No.1 relocated the family to Baroda while undergoing training in Railway Department. The couple did not bear any children during the marriage. This led to persistent verbal abuse and psychological torment from Accused No.1 and his family, who blamed the complainant for the absence of children. While residing in Ramagundam, the complainant became pregnant but suffered a miscarriage due to malnutrition.

5(c). Accused No.1 later secured employment with the Income Tax Department and was sent to Nagpur for training. There, he continued to treat her as a menial servant. Following his transfer to Hyderabad, the couple attempted assisted reproductive procedures, including test tube fertilization, but was unsuccessful. Subsequently, Accused No.1 and his family began spreading rumors and making arrangements for his remarriage. In 2005, to meet the unbearable harassment a female child was adopted, who was named Laxmi Sindhoora.

5(d). While residing in Hyderabad, the complainant observed Accused No.1 engaging in suspicious conduct, including frequently keeping himself aloof from home at nights. After his transfer to Kurnool, within three months the family went on a trip to Orissa, during which Accused No.1 disclosed to a colleague that he had remarried and had another child through that marriage. Upon returning, when she questioned him, he reacted violently— creating a scene, abusing her physically and verbally, and eventually forcefully ejecting her from their home. She then returned to Hyderabad, took residence in Mithilanagar, Meerpet, and enrolled the adopted daughter in a nearby school. Accused No.1 was subsequently transferred to Tirupati, Kerala, and then back to Hyderabad.

5(e). The complainant discovered that in Hyderabad the Accused No.1 had purchased a residential flat in Madhapur, where he was cohabiting with Accused No.2 and had fathered three children with her. She also learnt that a plot which had been purchased during her cohabitation with Accused No.1 and registered in her name near Chintapally, was fraudulently transferred to the name of Accused No.2 on the false pretense that the complainant was deceased.

5(f). According to the complainant, Accused No.1 entered into an illicit relationship with Accused No.2, married her, and completely abandoned the complainant and the adopted child. Despite repeated requests,